October 26, 2016 - SHARK!

I love life so much right now it is amazing. This week was full of some big changes, and also some sad moments, but as always I am loving the mission. This week was a week of awesome food and learning opporotunities. 

So this week we got our transfer calls, and Elder Jones and I had to end our time together, but I get to stay in my sector! Elder Jones is leaving to the zone just across the freeway, but we will not see each other as often, but I am so grateful for our time together. But with that being said, I got my new companion yesterday Elder Topalda from Argentina! He is a great guy with a funny and dedicated personality and it is great being with him because I get to practice my Spanish all the time now! It is definitely different speaking Spanish all day everyday, but I can already see the improvement and I am always learning. Because he is from Argentina Elder Topalda talks in a different accent, whenever there are the letters "ll" he says it like the "sh" sound so I was super confused for our first five minutes together hahahhaha. I know that we are going to see a ton of amazing fruits here in our sector during this change as long as we stay obedient and stay working hard! 

As our investigators go they are progressing and working on reading the Book of Mormon! We have an awesome investigator named Rudolfo and he is really looking for an answer to know if this church is true, so we taught him the importance of reading and praying in order to find answers, and we left him the the commitment to read and he said yes! Rudolfo is awesome because he also helps me with my Spanish because he speaks really good English, he sounds just like a gringo. We also have another investigator with a baptismal date, and we have a ton of less active members who continue to progress every day. However, it was sad this week when we went to visit the Haitians. Elder Jones and I went to their house and they looked at us through the window and then did not answer their phones, so it hurt to see that they dropped us, but you have to respect people and their decisions. But overall, things are great in Parque Combarbalá.

So down here in Chile are things called ferias, which is basically a giant street fair where they sell everything you could ever want. One morning Elder Jones and I finished a morning contacting session and we were walking through the feria when we found... SHARK! So of course we had to buy some shark meat and see how it tasted, and let me say, it was probably one of the best things I have ever eaten. It was like a T Bone steak from the ocean, delicious. I hope Elder Topalda and I can find some more one day because shark is really tasty.

Overall things are great and going good. The work is progressing and I am seeing the help of my Father in Heaven everyday in my life. I hope all of you are doing good!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Sister Gwilliam posted this picture on Facebook.  Grateful she can end the picture drought for now.  Hopefully, the card reader will arrive soon!

October 19, 2016 - Giving Juice, Goat Boys

Wow how has it already been another week? Time goes by so fast here it scares me because I do not want to leave the mission hahahah. Anyway, this week was great, and Elder Jones and I are having a ton of progress in our sector, and I am learning new things everyday.

Ok so this last week has been pretty fun for Elder Jones and I to work with people in our sector. We have really been focusing on strengthening the young people of our sector, because we want to help them get on missions and to help them involve their friends in the gospel. One of the people we are working with is the only member in his family, so we are just making sure he has support from us and from the ward, his name is Alejandro. We went on divisiones with him all day on Monday and at the end of the night he gave me a scarf, which is awesome because a cold wave hit Santiago, so it is freezing cold now. One of our investigators is making huge progress, so I would like to fill you guys in. His name is Rudolfo and he is awesome, we met him by looking in our area book for old investigators, and we went and visited him and at first he was ni alli with us. But, we were able to teach him because he loves to learn English, so we taught him some classes and always mixed in gospel principles, and now he is actually investigating the church and reading the Book of Mormon and asking us questions! He is super sincere, and he is praying and reading to know if what he is learning about the gospel is true, so I am super excited for him, because I know he will get an answer! Overall a solid week.

So down here in Chile they have their own phrases, just like in the US we have phrases we say like "piece of cake" and I thought I would share a few Chilean phrases with you, as well as the translations.

Giving Jucie means goofing off

Goat Boy is a name you would call someone who is like the age of a highschooler

Painting monkeys is like being lazy and not doing anything

And down here in Chile they always say "po" after every thought they say, it is kind of like how in Canda people say "eh", so when Chileans watch Kung Fu Panda, it must be really confusing for them. (Lets see who gets that joke)

Things are going great down here, I am so happy and I look forward to everyday because there are always new experiences to have and things to learn everyday. I am grateful for the growth I have seen in myself so that I can become a better missionary in the hands of Heavenly Father. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Mosiah 24; 14 through 18

October 12, 2016 - Criminal Superheroes

Well once again things were nice down here in Santiago, not much changed, the air is still full of smog, the people are always interesting, and the dogs are always barking, but I honestly love it all. This week was a great week of teaching and learning, and I am so grateful for every second that I have to serve the Lord. 

Ok lets start off with our investigators and the other people that we are teaching. This past week has been really good for teaching, we have had a ton of powerful lessons where we teach and people agree to follow up on commitments to read the Book of Mormon, go to church, or keep the commandments. Elder Jones and I had a really good lesson with Jacob yesterday, we were talking and I felt the need to readdress his problem with getting baptized, so we talked and testified and for the first time Jacob said that he feels a change in his life! It has been so awesome to work with him and see his progress. Elder Jones and I are also working with an investigator who speaks pretty good English, so we have English classes with him and his friend and share and discuss Gospel principles. It has been great to talk and show them that we are normal people, because they have some negative influences in their life telling them stuff about Mormons, so it is good they can meet us and know who we are. Overall this week has been really good and a good time of teaching and learning how to testify powerfully.

Ok so of course, we have the funny moment of the week. So on Friday Elder Jones and I were walking in the afternoon and we were called over to talk to a guy and his friend. One of the men just wanted to fight with us and yell at us and call us liars, but the other one was very interested in us, so I distracted the guy who was yelling with some questions and stories in the Bible and Elder Jones talked to his nicer friend. That was quite an experience just getting yelled at for like 30 minutes, but it was good because we got to teach a great lesson on the street. But anyway, right after we left those guys we were approached by two more men and they started to talk to us and it wsa going great. We asked what they did for jobs and one guy literally says "I rob people, but it is ok because I have a family, so what I do is justified." We continued to talk with them, and then we became friends so it was good, now I think he wont rob us! hahahahah no but it was a really funny moment because he was explaining how what he did was OK because he does it for a purpose and not just for fun hahahahhah.

I am sad though, my time with my trainer Elder Jones is coming to an end, and it will just be weird to have a new companion, especially one that I get along with as well as I do with Elder Jones, but time goes on. But I am loving the mission, I am learning more about myself every day and I am learning how to be a better person and I have found my love for other people down here in Santiago. If there is one thing that I have learned for a surety, it is not Spanish or how to cook (I can make some dang good cereal) I have learned on the mission that helping others brings the greatest happiness that can be found in life. I love you all, keep in touch and do not forget to write!

Love,

Elder Tilghman 

Alma 7 I would recommend reading, it is really powerful

October 5, 2016 - No, we most definitely are not

Hey everyone how are things going? This week down here in Santiago was awesome and was actually a really spiritual experience and I loved the growth and the Spirit that I felt down here this week. And as always, this week had the funny moments with the people as well.

Ok so this week was super awesome because we had General Conference this weekend! For those of you who do not know what that is, General Conference happens once every six months and it is an opporotunity for the prophets and the apostles and other church leaders to give talks and to address the world in their messages, and they give help and guidance in what they say. Conference was awesome not only because I was able to learn for myself, but Elder Jones and I had Jacob, one of our Haitian investigators there with us one day! I really enjoyed that he was there and able to learn more about our church and the teaching, and all the talks about the Book of Mormon made me feel amazing and made me feel a new love and joy to serve. All of our investigators in our area are progressing down here, and we are teaching some great people. Some study English, and others have really good questions that invite the Spirit into our lessons, which is something I love. I have really learned that if we want to feel the truth of what we are learning, whether it be in the Gospel or in secular learning, if we teach the principle ourselves we learn so much more than just pure studies. 

This week was also some new opporotunities for me too. On Friday all the missionaries in our zone took a missionary from the MTC (the training center) and went and taught with them for the day to show them what the mission life is like. I was paired with an Elder from northern Chile, and it was fun to get to know him and work with him, we had a great day and I got to feel like his dad for a day hahahhaa. On Monday I had divisions with my district leader Elder Anderson and I really loved that I got to know him better as we talked and worked during the day, he taught me a lot. Overall it was a great week of new experiences!

Ok so finally the funny story of the week. On Monday morning we were doing contacts with people in the morning and I was talking with this super nice lady. We had a good conversation about our families and about our lives and she actually said she wants the missionaries to come by her house and talk more. It was all super cool, and then right at the end of our meeting in the street she looked at me and the other missionaries that were in the street and she straight up looked me in the eye and asked me if we were gay. Maybe it is because I was wearing my gray and pink tie, but I do not know why she asked me that. One of the other missionaries overheard the question and after the lady walked away the missionary just started dying laughing and we both just laughed in the street for a couple minutes. So yeah, I guess you never know with the Chileans what they are going to say.

Overall I am loving the work down here and I love the people even more. I am really excited with the work we are doing, Elder Jones and I, and I have learned to love the mission more than I can imagine. I hope you are all doing good, keep in touch with how all of you are doing!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Mateo 10: 39

El que halla su vida, la perderá, y el que pierde su vida por causa de mí, la hallará

This is literally how every flite walks around in the street, and then they always yell at us

Another museum pic, this one was really cool

Buena, this was my Elder that I worked with for a day who is from the CCM